


Centre of the Compass

by lilacsigil



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: China, F/F, Historical
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-08
Updated: 2011-01-08
Packaged: 2017-10-14 14:11:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/150038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilacsigil/pseuds/lilacsigil
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two women at a trading settlement on the Pearl River Delta.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Centre of the Compass

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shopfront](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shopfront/gifts).



> Thanks to st_aurafina for reading.

"I know what you are," Margarida told Katarina as they lay together on the hard wooden bunk in Katarina's cabin. She could smell the overheated bodies of the men outside, shouting and sweating as they loaded heavy rolls of silk into the hold.

"Only because you are just the same as I." Katarina ran a hand along Margarida's hip. They were almost at human body temperature, in Macau's relentless tropical heat.

"You're not even Portuguese. Nor are you the Captain's wife."

Katarina laughed. "Of course not. You do sell medicines, though."

"Yes. I have found that making oneself indispensable is the quickest way to acceptance."

"Whereas I prefer making everyone else highly dispensable."

"You must travel a great deal, then, and very fast." Margarida laughed, too. Europe was full of tiny warring nations, she had heard. It didn't sound very difficult to move on, there. Guangdong had grown ever more peaceful and orderly during Margarida's long existence, and that suited her not at all.

"You must not have many friends, Katarina."

"And yet I have sailed to the ends of the earth without harm."

"No, you have sailed from the ends of the earth," Margarida corrected. "Now you are in the centre, and you can travel anywhere you please."

Katarina slipped her soft hand between Margarida's legs again. "Come with me when my ship sails, my dear. Be my indispensable one."

"I cannot believe you, Katarina," she sighed, sliding her hand to Katarina's soft breast. "And yet it is not your words that persuade me."

"No, it's that you've come to the most turbulent place in your nation and even so cannot hide your nature."

Katarina moved her cool fingers and Margarida flinched, but moved toward her touch, too. They were one kind, and it had been so long since Margarida had met another.

Outside, the Pearl River flowed slowly, hot and sticky as blood, streaming outwards from the heart of the world.


End file.
